Edison Chen

Early life

Chen was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, of Chinese and 1/8 Portuguese descent. Chen's father is businessman Edward Chen (陳澤民), a Hong Kong entertainment industry mogul famously known as "Ninth Brother" (九哥).

He was a student at R.C. Palmer Secondary School in Richmond, British Columbia and also attended Hong Kong International School. He was in the same tenth grade class as fellow actor Nicholas Tse.

He spoke English as his first language before learning Cantonese and Mandarin later on. He speaks some Japanese as well. He also knows some basic Khmer since he had to learn it to play a Cambodian Assassin in Dog Bite Dog. He has two older sisters.

Film

In 1999, a talent scout approached Chen while he was clubbing with friends in Hong Kong. He asked him to film a commercial. He was at the age of 19 when he was featured in a Leon Lai's Citibank commercial. In the early 2000s he starred alongside Cecilia Cheung in a commemorative subway commercial.

From then on, his career began with the Japanese film Dead or Alive 2: Birds. He made his Hong Kong film debut in the film Gen-Y Cops in 2000. He starred in many popular films including Infernal Affairs, Infernal Affairs II, Initial D, and Dog Bite Dog. Determined to expand his horizons to countries around the world, he also starred in the Japanese drama Under the Same Moon. In 2006, he made his American debut as a Hong Kong journalist in The Grudge 2. He was offered a small role in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift but he declined. His final film in Hong Kong as of 2013 is The Sniper, which was filmed before the Edison Chen photo scandal. He also filmed a cameo as a thug in The Dark Knight but because of the scandal, his role was reduced and was seen very briefly as a receptionist instead. Some reports states that he was originally cast to play Lau, a corrupted Chinese Accountant, which was played by Chin Han. He made his comeback in an Asian American film called Almost Perfect which he and his co-stars have been spending time promoting on several film festivals. On 28 October, during a fashion event in Beijing, Edison Chen announced that he would be starring in Initial D 2. The filming of the movie was scheduled to begin in 2011 but it has been delayed indefinitely. In 2014, he made an brief comeback to the Hong Kong film industry in Golden Chickensss. After eight years of doing short roles, he is officially making a comeback to the entertainment business after he was spotted filming for Lou Ye's new project in Guangzhou on April 2016.

Music

In 2000, at the age of 20, Chen landed a record deal with Emperor Entertainment Group. It took him a number of successful album releases before he was given the opportunity to produce a hip hop album. His first hip-hop release was in February 2004, called Please Steal This Album backed by MC Yan and Singaporean musician Hanjin Chen. Several singles from the album topped local pop charts. Chen mentioned the difficulty of fitting in Hong Kong, where it is dominated by Cantopop, but said that hip hop has a great potential.

He is featured on M-Flo's album, Cosmicolor, on the track "LOVE ME, HATE THE GAME" with Chan, Thaitanium and Ryohei Yamamoto.

After Chen's comeback in late 2009 he began work on his next album titled CONFUSION. The record includes collaborations with well-known local hip hop artists MC HotDog, MC Yan, and Master Chef. Additional collaborations include Sammi Cheng and Jay Chou.

Fashion

Edison's foray into the fashion industry accompanied his rising success as a young pop icon. Edison, along with partners Kevin Poon and Billy Ip, became the founders of CLOT Inc., a clothing company described as a "lifestyle company" that is geared toward youth culture, and bringing street fashion to China and Hong Kong. The company has collaborated with many big clothing companies, such as Adidas, Nike, A Bathing Ape, Subscrew and Disney. He is also part founder of clothing vendor JUICE, currently operating in Hong Kong (original), Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur with future plans to open a further 17 stores.

Multimedia company

In February 2007, he invested $10 million HKD to open his own multi-media company, Clot Media Division, which plans to produce movies, commercials and music albums. In June 2007, he released a Mandarin album, Allow Me to Re-Introduce Myself (讓我再次介紹我自己), with tracks produced by Kanye West, Just Blaze, and Clinton Sparks.

Community work

As early as 2001 Chen had appeared in Vancouver charity shows. He has also been a supporter for the gay and lesbian community in Hong Kong, including being voted as an icon in 2001.

In 2007 he was invited by Be@rbrick toys for a charity event in Hong Kong Harbour City. The charity proceeds were donated to "Hong Kong Blood Cancer Foundation".

Video game

He provided voice work as a low-level triad member named Jackie Ma, a major character in Sleeping Dogs, an 2012 open world action-adventure video game that is set in Hong Kong.

2004 Chen assault incident

In March 2004, two male teenagers assaulted Chen in Central District of Hong Kong. The two teenagers mocked Chen with dance moves outside a record store. Immediately following the dance taunt, both of the teenagers punched Chen. Upon doing so the two teenagers fled the scene, and Chen gave chase. Chen eventually caught up to the two individuals as they were trying to board a bus. They were turned over to Hong Kong police. As a result of the incident, Chen reported that he sprained his ankle and that his cheekbone and ear were also injured. Chen declined to press charges and the two individuals were released.

2007 taxi incident

Chen drove to his home after midnight 9 March 2007. The gate was blocked by a Toyota Crown Comfort taxi that had just dropped off its passengers. The taxi driver then signaled Chen to move away so he could pull out, clearing the way for Chen to enter. Chen's security guard told the taxi driver to pull over so that Chen could pass. The taxi driver insulted the security guard. Chen proceeded to have an argument with the taxi driver. Despite the presence of the security guard and other witnesses, he got out of his car and kicked the taxi several times, denting it and breaking all its windows. He was subsequently charged by the police. On the basis of these charges he was convicted and placed on a one-year good behavior bond. He was also fined; the taxi company was granted HK$4,700 in compensation for the damage inflicted to the car.

2008 photo scandal

In January 2008, Chen was involved in a widely publicised sex scandal when sexually explicit nude photographs of himself taken four years earlier became widely circulated on the Internet. Chen was never accused of uploading the photos himself and a computer technician was later sentenced for accessing Chen's computer during a repair. Celebrities implicated in the scandal included 8 victims: Cecilia Cheung, Gillian Chung, Bobo Chan, Candice Chan (陈思慧), Vincy Yeung (杨永晴), Mandy Chen (陈育嬬) and Rachel Ngan (颜颖思). Nude photos of Edison's ex-girlfriend, Vincy Yeung, were also made public and the future of their relationship was the subject of intense media gossip.

Hong Kong police have stated that they confiscated a collection of sex-related photos that involve six other identifiable females and other unidentifiable males.

Initially the authenticity of the photos was denied, and digital manipulation was used as the primary explanation for the pictures. However, Hong Kong police and Photoshop experts argued that the photos were in fact real and not digitally altered. This brought about a serious reaction towards all parties involved in the scandal. As a result, Chen made a public apology in English to the Hong Kong people and the ladies involved and indirectly admitted his role and expressed remorse and subsequently announced his indefinite departure from the Hong Kong entertainment industry at a press conference.

Due to the scandal, the Google search engine rankings for 2008 resulted in Chen's Chinese name being the number 1 search term in China, and number 3 in Taiwan. Chen was runner-up to US president-elect Barack Obama in the Hong Kong Person of 2008 poll by government-run RTHK radio, with just under 30 percent of votes in the Person of the Year. On 1 June 2009, Chen spoke openly about the sex photo scandal for the first time since the scandal broke in an interview with TalkAsia on CNN. In the interview he reveals his side of the scandal and how he endured criticisms from the public, the media, and from the individuals affected by the case.

2011 photo scandal

Three years later, Chen was involved in another photo scandal, this time with a 16-year-old Hong Kong model Cammi Tse. Their relationship was revealed after photos of them together hugging and kissing each other were leaked online and later, the 16-year-old model stated that her phone was lost. It was later revealed that Chen had sent text messages to Tse, asking her to pose for him in swimsuits and school uniforms. Tse confirmed that there were no nude photos. Chen later told the media that when he met Tse, he thought that their relationship could go further on but because of what happened, he decided to pull back before confirming that he is still single.

Tse reported that she lost her virginity to Chen and adding on that he filmed a two-minute video of her in the bedroom and he also bought sexy lingerie for her.

2014 Paris Incident

While walking on the streets of Paris with his Chinese girlfriend, Ann Hong, when he was scheduled to attend a fashion event, Chen flashed his middle finger at a fan who was taking pictures of him. The fan who took the pictures uploaded the pictures into her Weibo account and stated how very disappointed she was by his actions, because it was such a rare chance for her to get to meet Chen in Paris and it was very sad for her to be treated in that way by the actor.

The public's reaction was mixed, as some stated that the fan was being impolite for photographing Chen on a private day out, but other netizens commented that he should have responded more politely because after all, he is a public figure.

2015 Shanghai Airport Incident

Edison Chen made headlines once again after he got into a fight with a queue-jumper at an airport in Shanghai. The man accused Chen throwing away his ID card, and both had some physical contact. Apparently, Chen was upset at him for trying to cut him in line. They were later taken to the police station but were not charged as they made a settlement.

2016 Chiling Lin Weibo Post

On a Weibo post in July, Edison Chen attacked Taiwanese star Lin Chi-ling by making several vicious posts in English and Chinese about her appearance, her smell and how she became a celebrity. Although Lin's agency responded to the media by claiming she did not know Chen, and could not have done anything that could have offended him, it was later said that Lin and Chen's Chinese supermodel girlfriend, Shu Pei Qin did not get along, and Lin excluded her from taking part of a fashion show. After avoiding attention for several days, Lin threatened to take legal action against Chen for insulting her, and hurting her reputation to the public, and she would have every right to sue him. It was also revealed that Lin had no knowledge of Qin being excluded from the show. Lin joined the show because it involved a charity project and she did not know of Qin's involvement. However, Chen responded to Lin's legal action against him by posting on his Weibo, both in English and Chinese, : "Woooooo that was a close call. Think about what happened in the past few days and ask yourself, why don't they just sue me?".

Personal life

In Chen's personal blog, he referred to an anonymous girlfriend as "V". In 2007, he finally announced that he has been dating Vincy Yeung (the niece of EEG founder Albert Yeung) for three years. On an entertainment show in Taiwan, Chen disclosed that he planned to marry Vincy and that his previous playboy and womanising habits have stopped because of his love for his current girlfriend. He repeated his gratitude to her in an interview with Time Out Hong Kong magazine in March 2011.

Early in his career, Chen and fellow Hong Kong actor Nicholas Tse were good friends as they attended the same school and even appeared in a film together. However, the photo scandal which involved Tse's then-wife, Cecilia Cheung ended their friendship. In 2011, Chen almost ran into Tse when they were both at the same building in Hong Kong but they missed each other by twenty minutes. Chen reportedly walked away from that area after he was told that Tse was nearby.

Chen was due to relocate to Taiwan in early 2013 for his then girlfriend, Ann Hong, and there was talk of them getting married in the near future. Apparently, Chen had cut down on partying and even his well-known hot temper for her. After two years of a promising relationship with Hong, they broke up after she discovered text messages from another woman on Chen's birthday. Two months after their break-up, Chen was linked with another model, who is 14 years his junior.

Chen reportedly made peace with at least two of the Hong Kong actresses that were involved in the photo scandal; Cecilia Cheung and Gillian Chung. Coincidentally, both apologies were made on an airplane.

In October 2015, it has been reported that Chen is romantically linked with a married Chinese supermodel name Shupei Qin. They were spotted kissing at a store launch but when they were both confronted by paparazzi, he denied the claim before intentionally knocking the cameraman out of the way. In January 2017, it was revealed that they are both expecting their first child together. However, on May 2017, when reporters approached him at the Hong Kong International Airport about the news, he aggressively denied, and even threatened a female reporter that if she asked more questions, he would not hold back.

In August 2017, Chen confirmed the birth of their baby daughter, named Alaia and released a photo of her on social media.

Seven years after his photo scandal, Chen said that he would not change a thing if he could go back in time. "I am very happy now. Even though some unhappy incidents have occurred in the past, I never had any evil intent and did not do those things on purpose. They were an accident," he added.

Films

Voice Overs

TV series

Other appearances

Film and TV Awards

2000-2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2011

Special Awards